Must Watch Movies: The Invisible Guest (2016) – One of the best Mystery / Crime / Suspense thrillers on Netflix

The Invisible Guest is originally a Spanish crime thriller film released in the name of Contratiempo”, is dubbed in English for Netflix.

Genre: Drama, Mystery, Suspense
Ratings: Rotten Tomatoes 4.1/5 ; IMDb: 8.1/10
Written by: Oriol Paulo
Starring : Mario Casas ,Ana Wagener, José Coronado, Bárbara Lennie

In the opening scene, Adrian Doria, a young successful entrepreneur wakes up in a hotel room that’s locked from inside alongside the dead body of his lover, Laura. With no possible explanation to exonerate him of the crime, Adrian hires the services of Virginia Goodman- a prestigious lawyer who prepares witnesses.

Despite Adrián’s protests that he is innocent, Virginia reveals that the prosecution has uncovered a new witness and that the judge in charge of the case will most likely call him in to testify in three hours’ time. She tells Adrián that she needs him to lay out exactly what happened with absolute truth, since they only have a limited amount of time to formulate a defense strategy.

From this moment, the movie goes back and forth between flashbacks as Adrián tells Virginia his story and the present day as she pokes holes in every version of events that make him sound like a saint who is being framed by some unknown party. But the screenplay and Virginia’s interrogation fires-up the screen, as the film piles revelation on top of revelation.

There’s much to recommend in “The Invisible Guest”. For one, it looks gorgeous, cinematography is fantastic on the plot of Spanish mountains and forest roadways. Next is the screenplay, the scenes move expertly between present day and Adrián’s recounting, which gives the film a fluid feel. 

And, like any good thriller, it’s tense right up to the end. If you like fast paced mystery thriller, you’ll love it! 100% RECOMMENDED! Here's the trailer!

Must Watch Movies: Eye In The Sky review (2015) - Drama - Thriller

There’s a good chance that many of you haven’t heard of this movie, mostly because it didn’t get a lot of publicity. “Eye in the Sky” is a British military drama that released in the UK in late 2015 but hit rest of the world nearly an year later. The film is actually pretty eye-opening and incredibly tense, and certainly worth a watch. 

In Kenya, a group of terrorists have been located by Kenyan agents and tracking them in England is Colonel Katherine Powell (Helen Mirren) and her team. After planting a bug inside the house of the terrorists, they identify the terrorists as East Africa’s #2, #4 and #5 most wanted. Powell’s original mission to identify and capture the terrorists becomes moot as they watch the terrorists gear up for a likely suicide bombing.

Colonel Powell immediately asks Lt. Colonel Frank Benson (Alan Rickman) for the affirmative to destroy the targets. Once given the all clear by his political advisors, Colonel Benson orders Air Force Lieutenant Steve Watts (Aaron Paul) to take out the terrorists with a drone. Just before he detonates, a Kenyan girl named Alia (Aisha Takow) begins setting up a bread stall, just outside the home of the terrorists. Watts refuses to shoot, and with time running out. What did the crew decide and execute is the thriller plot.

The story involves a huge cast of characters—everyone from US Air Force drone operators to a British war general to the US Head of State and topping off at the British Prime Minister. Rather than an intense ground battle, this was much more political and opens viewers’ eyes to the pressure of those pulling the trigger. 

Following chains of command and protocol both give structure to and inhibit military action, and leaves you a deeply disturbing question: Is one certain death better than 100 probable ones? 

On paper, it’s probably a pretty simple answer. But in reality, it is not!. 

Eye in the Sky leaves you with questions you’ll likely forever be unsure about. But then again, when are there ever any simple answers in war? It’s a must watch, you’ll like every minute of it!.

Must Watch Movies: The Commuter (2018) - Liam Neeson's Train Suspense Thriller

Genre:   Drama, Mystery, Suspense
Rating:  PG-13 (yet a decent family entertainer with no obscene)
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Writers: Byron Willinger, Philip de Blasi and Ryan Engle
Stars: Liam Neeson, Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson
One-line plot: A businessman is caught up in a criminal conspiracy during his daily commute home.

Michael MacCauley (Neeson) is a 60 years old, former NYPD detective who turned into insurance salesman. As usual, that morning he gets -up, greets his son, got dropped off by his wife, boards the train and reaches office, as he’s been doing for over 10 years. But then his life turns into hell.

He gets fired on that day. With frustrations, he boards the regular train way back to home. Things take a thrilling turn when Michael meets Joanna (Farmiga) at the train, she puts him on a task that would get Michael a 100K USD cash; failing would cost the lives of his wife & son!.

Has Michael really become capable of what Joanna is asking? Especially if the end result could mean someone getting killed What follows is how Michael deals with the powerful forces following him. That’s the simple, but very strong and fast paced story line that you can only experience it yourselves.
 

Liam Neeson, at his late 60’s is unbelievable and still proves to be the king of action genre. Arguably, he has been playing the guy from Taken with a new family and scenario for almost a decade now.

It’s definitely a remarkable movie, the kind of energy/performances from this movie make it certainly worth checking out. It doesn’t matter whether you are a fan of Liam Neeson or not, you’ll find yourself having a good time!. It’s also one of those clean movies that you can watch with your family.

Must Watch Movies: Gone Girl (2014) - David Fincher - Ben Affleck - Rosamund Pike - Gillian Flynn

IMDb Score: 8,1/10 Rotten Tomatoes: 88%
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, Psychological
Runtime: 145 minutes
Rating: R
Directed By: David Fincher
Written By: Gillian Flynn
Stars: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris
Language: English

Based on the bestselling novel of the same name and adapted for the big screen by the novel’s author, Gillian Flynn, "Gone Girl" stars Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike as Nick and Amy Dunne, a fantastic-looking couple who met and fell for each other in New York City. Nick, as Amy writes in her diaries, was the man of her dreams. Both were writers, in fact, until life dealt them a few hard blows.

Now they’re in Nick’s hometown of North Carthage, Missouri, where he owns a downtown bar tended by his twin sister, Margo (scene-stealer Carrie Coon). Nick’s nightmare begins when he gets a phone call and races home from the bar, only to find the cat wandering outside and his wife gone. He calls the cops and we have the pleasure of meeting Det. Rhonda Boney (Kim Dickens) and Officer Jim Gilpin (Patrick Fugit). Boney, armed with a smart pantsuit and cup of coffee, has some questions for Nick..

In the meantime, we’re treated to flashbacks to various parts of Nick and Amy’s relationship, accompanied by Amy’s diaries entries. At first, they paint a picture of a couple very much in love, but the relationship devolves, suggesting, along with many other clues, that Nick might have been behind Amy’s disappearance. Is she dead? Where’s her body? Did he kill her? Why isn’t he more distraught? Once the media gets hold of the story, there’s a tidal wave of negative public opinion against Nick.

Gone Girl is one of the best thrillers in visual style as well as in storytelling. If you’re married, Gone Girl may well make you look at your partner in a very different way…

The movie shows you that women can be as crazy and violent as men can. This is actually a good visualization of a man's nightmare 😊. The scenes in the movie often take you aback and gives a whole new perspective about the human psychology and mind games.

A must watch for everyone with psychological and intellectual curiosities.

Have you seen the movie? Or read the book? What did you think?

American Sniper (2015)

I’d been noticing a lot of talk over the “ American Sniper” for quite some time. Especially the terrific box-office stats just hard-pressed me to watch the movie.

The film is actually a biopic of Chris Kyle, a Texas Cowboy who became a Navy SEAL sniper, credited with 160 confirmed kills while on duty in Iraq. Soon after retired from the services in 2009, he wrote a book about his war & life experiences as “American Sniper”, and this movie is just the on-screen version of the book. Bradley Cooper has played Kyle and Sienna Miller as his wife – Taya, and directed by Eastwood.

Plot: A few years ago, I saw a movie where an American soldier posted in Iraq during the invasion, who goes through a severe psychological changeover. He’s so into the war and he’s so good at war techniques and  he finds it difficult to go back to his normal life back home in the peace. Social life makes him awkward. Shopping seems like a boring activity to him. And the only thing that makes him smile during the whole day is when he speaks to his mates at the warfront.

That movie was called as “The Hurt Locker”. I saw the same plot here too, but this movie is called as "American Sniper" :P , it’s a very similar film.

My Comments: There’s a lot of debates and controversies already over the film’s authenticity, making and message. I don’t want to write anything more and get into trouble :). Let me just share that how / what I felt about the movie.

American Sniper might have been an important movie, especially for the US Veterans. But, it’s not that exciting and engaging like other war films; many scenes were too lengthy and redundant- particularly the war fronts. (Ofcourse, that’s how the war scene would be :P , but still an interesting screenplay could have made a difference).

Bradley Cooper’s performance as Kyle and the struggle he portrays as a man forever altered by war, seeking to find his identity when it’s over – is simply remarkable. It’s definitely a great movie for Bradley Cooper at least !.

Last Vegas (2013)

Four Hollywood legends Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, and Kevin Kline play four childhood friends, who are currently at their 60+ , reunite to celebrate the bachelor party of their friend - Douglas (a long term bachelor :) )  at Las Vegas.

If you expect an elderly version of "The Hangover" , sure you'll be disappointed…”., this movie is a lot different. It has a strong friendship, love, humour, fun, drama... all mixed up in a proper proportion.

Douglas & De Niro show you a touching relationship drama, while Freeman & Kline provide the gentle dose of humor. There is Mary Steenburgen who gave up her past life to become an aged lounge singer and changes the life of two of the men.

The film also captures Vegas pretty well, maybe not every aspect, but enough to make you feel like as you were there in Vegas for the 90 minutes. I'm really surprised why this movie was so underrated? Seems even Hollywood critics too give good scores only to the long boring movies like Gravity, or Prisoners... :P